No casino in the Hill, or anywhere in the city

No casino license should be issued for Pittsburgh's Hill District. Of three proposed Pittsburgh sites, the Hill is the most historic and residential in character. Duquesne University is located in walking distance of the proposed casino. The hill was the birthplace and muse to August Wilson. We must protect its historic value, neighborhoods, churches and college students.

Gambling addiction is fastest growing among youth. And African-Americans are statistically four times as prone to gambling addiction.

The Isle of Capri proposal for the Hill is described as a "world-class gaming and entertainment facility" with a new arena. However, neither Pittsburgh nor Pennsylvania wants to be another Las Vegas strip or Atlantic City.

Moreover, no casino should exist in Pittsburgh. There are several universities and many high schools that need to be protected from gambling addiction and gambling culture which may include blighted neighborhoods, a sensuous, immoral lifestyle that feeds on human passion of addiction, alcoholism, gluttony, prostitution. A morally challenged governor signed into law free booze in casinos, compounding the problem.

Economic development must be blessed of God. Pittsburgh must be a place where people can safely send their daughters to high school and college.

The rush to license is disrespectful of the people and of republican government, sowing the seeds of destruction to political careers. Act 71 -- the state law that legalized gambling -- is a moral controversy like Roe v. Wade, gay marriage, removing prayer from schools.

A moratorium should be immediate.

WILLIAM DEPNER
McKeesport

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We won

It seems our government and the news media are trying to determine if we are winning or losing in Iraq.

I don't understand the confusion. We won.

We defeated Saddam. Just like we defeated the British, the Mexicans, the Germans and the Japanese.

We won. The war is over.

The conflict that is occurring now is not the war. We aren't losing. In fact, the losers are the Iraqis. They are content with killing each other and destroying their country. They prefer revenge to peace. Our military should stay out of the conflict and protect areas requiring a security force.

Our military did a great job, and they did what we asked of them. They are winners.

JERRY FINK
South Park

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The Powell solution

With the president's less-than- impressive meeting in Jordan with the Iraqi prime minister, in whom the president's security adviser has little confidence, the recent visit of Vice President Dick Cheney to Saudi Arabia which yielded nothing of value, and Donald Rumsfeld's long overdue resignation, it is obvious the "team" is in retreat, if not despair, about the war in Iraq.

I have a modest proposal to put the United States back on track:

First, Dick Cheney should resign to prevent his myocardial infarction.

Second, President Bush should appoint Colin Powell as his replacement.

Third, after the required congressional approval, President Bush should resign.

Then Mr. Powell, having previously agreed not to seek election in 2008, will lead a national unity government in an attempt to clean up the mess in Iraq and seriously address other national issues.

NATHAN HERSHEY
Squirrel Hill

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Some deal

"Ousted Rep. Veon's Pension About $60,000," read your Dec. 1 headline. "22-year Legislator and His Colleagues Also Will Receive Free Health Insurance For Life" the subheadline continued. And that ain't all! Their pensions are excluded from the state and local income taxes.

Next spring, the public will vote on a referendum for raising local school earned income taxes (EIT) or replacing the EIT with a personal income tax (PIT).

All pensions and Social Security payments are excluded. As a result the legislators will receive property tax relief on their homes, but will not pay any offsetting increases in their EIT or PIT.

While many taxpayers have lost their pensions or have jobs which don't have pension benefits, members of the General Assembly who created legislation for property tax "relief" shield the pensions for themselves, the governor who signed the legislation and the judges who may have to rule on the legality of any such taxes, from having to share the retirement pain of real wage earners who will pay for that property tax "relief."

MICHAEL P. HORNICK
Industry

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How Atlanta moves

I recently returned from a visit to a town north of Atlanta. At the airport, I boarded MARTA, the mass transit train, traveled in comfort for an hour, transferred to a bus waiting at the end of the line and rode another 20 minutes to a park-n-ride where my friend picked me up. All for $1.75.

For the same fare, you can travel through Zone 1 in Pittsburgh, paying another 50 cents each when you cross into Zones 2 and 3, where many commuters live. I understand there are a variety of reasons why our Port Authority has such high fares: low tax base, mismanagement, poorly conceived routes, high salaries, top-heavy management, expensive projects, lack of vision on the local and state level.

Even so, there seems something terribly wrong when I could ride for an hour and a half for $1.75 when a 5-minute round trip on the Duquesne Incline, which meets Port Authority fares, costs $3.50.

With the highest parking tax in the country and increasingly high transit fares, Pittsburgh is certainly not showing it is serious in attracting more businesses and shoppers Downtown, nor is it making itself attractive to start-up companies which look for cities with vision.

I urge the Port Authority, the city and the state to work harder on giving the citizens of the Pittsburgh area an affordable mass-transit system. If Atlanta can do it, we can too.

SUZANNE POWELL
Mount Washington

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Section 8 sanity

In response to the Dec. 4 letter "Enough Section 8": I do agree with Francesco Rosato Jr. that the program needs to be revised to limit the number of Section 8 properties in a neighborhood.

I recently attended a meeting of the Allentown Community Development Corp. where an official from the city Housing Authority spoke about Section 8.

What I found interesting was that there are many rules in place to protect the privacy of recipients of Section 8 vouchers (you can't find out which properties are under the program and they will not tell you how many properties in a neighborhood are Section 8), but there seems to be no protection for the neighborhoods.

The city talks a great deal about making sure new developments replacing old housing projects, such as Crawford Square and Oak Hill, are mixed income. But by allowing unlimited saturation of Section 8 properties in any neighborhood, you are resigning that neighborhood to indefinite low-income status.

If the goal is truly to have mixed- income neighborhoods, then the number of Section 8 properties in any one area needs to be limited. Yes, people have the right to live where they please, but not to the detriment of those who do not qualify for assistance and work hard to improve the value of their own property.

City Council was able to pass a bill limiting the number of bars in a neighborhood. They need to lobby Congress about reining in the abuse of Section 8.

JANICE STOCK
Mount Washington

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The kind bud

In response to the Dec. 5 article "Researchers Say Smoking Pot Not Always Path to Hard Drug Use": The results of this study are hardly shocking. The National Institute on Drug Abuse has funded similar studies in which the government hoped to reinforce some of their "facts" about smoking marijuana.

A recent study at UCLA found that there was no link between smoking marijuana and lung cancer. Dr. Donald Tashkin, a UCLA pulmonologist who has studied marijuana for 30 years, said in a Washington Post article in May, "We hypothesized that there would be a positive association between marijuana use and lung cancer and that the association would be more positive with heavier use, What we found instead was no association at all, and even a suggestion of some protective effect."

More and more we are seeing that the myths surrounding the use of marijuana are being debunked. It's time to get rid of the social stigma and criminal records associated with its use.

JOE PROVINCE
Shaler

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City bicyclists, add Bambi to your danger list

I have enjoyed your coverage of the wild turkeys of Panther Hollow ("Turkeys Turning Into New Pest on Block," Nov. 13). But there is a new urban cycling hazard that I would like to report.

Biking to work in Oakland recently, I approached the intersection of Ellsworth and Morewood in Shadyside -- and was almost run over by a fleeing deer!

Crazed motorists, angry turkeys -- and now this.

ROBERT HOFFMAN, M. D.
Point Breeze

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